Federal regulations require that a student make satisfactory academic progress toward the completion of a degree or certificate at Texarkana College in order to receive federal financial aid. At Texarkana College, the standards that students must meet to fulfill this requirement are stated in the Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress policy (FA-SAP). In addition, state law requires that students who receive exemptions and/or waivers to tuition and fee charges also maintain the same FA-SAP standards as students who receive financial aid. Finally, the Department of Veteran Affairs also requires that students who receive veterans’ benefits maintain FA-SAP standards in order to continue to receive benefits.
Students should be aware that FA-SAP standards are different from Academic SAP standards at Texarkana College. Students should also be aware that FA-SAP will be evaluated at the end of each semester. VA educational benefits are held to the same FA-SAP standards as Title IV Financial Aid.
Financial Aid Standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress Are:
I. GPA Requirement:
All financial aid recipients must have a cumulative financial aid SAP grade point average of 2.00.
II. Completion Requirements:
Students must, at a minimum, receive satisfactory grades in 67% of cumulative credits attempted. This calculation is performed by dividing the cumulative total number of successfully completed credits by the cumulative total number of credits attempted. All credits attempted at Texarkana College (except audits, which must be entered as such by the class census date) are included. Articulated transfer credits are included in this calculation. This evaluation will be made prior to aid being awarded and after grades are posted at the end of each semester a student is enrolled at the College.
Credits with satisfactory grades at Texarkana College are those for which a grade of A, B, C, or D is earned. Courses with a grade of F, W, U, and I are considered unsatisfactory for financial aid purposes and are included in this calculation.
Note: Federal Student Loan borrowers must meet FA-SAP requirements at the point of loan certification and again prior to the disbursement of any loan proceeds.
III. Maximum Time Frame (Max Credits):
The regulation set by the Department of Education specifies that for an undergraduate program, the maximum time frame may not exceed 150% of the published length of the program. Developmental and ESL course work are included in this calculation. Attempted credit from all enrollment periods at the college is counted; whether the student received financial aid for those terms is of no consequence.
Students who apply for financial aid at Texarkana College after having previously completed a bachelor’s degree will be considered to have exceeded the maximum time frame for an associate degree or certificate program, and they will be placed on max credits suspension immediately. After all their prior college transcripts have evaluated for potential transfer credit to Texarkana College, they may make a max credits degree plan with an academic advisor and appeal their suspension.
Failure to Meet Satisfactory Academic Progress
Warning Status
Students who fail to meet FA-Satisfactory Academic Progress for the first time (excluding students who have already attempted 150% of the credits required for their programs of study) will be automatically placed in a Warning Status for one (1) term and are expected to meet FA-SAP requirements by the end of that term. Students who fail to meet FA-SAP requirements at the end of the warning status term will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension.
Financial Aid Suspension
Unless extenuating circumstances exist and an appeal is granted, a student in Financial Aid Suspension should expect to continue classes at his or her own expense until FA-SAP requirements are again met.
Students who fail to meet FA-SAP and who choose to enroll without benefit of student financial aid may request a review of their academic records after any term in which they are enrolled without the receipt of financial aid to determine whether they have again met FA-Satisfactory Academic Progress standards. If the standards are met, eligibility is regained for subsequent terms of enrollment in the academic year.
Satisfactory Academic Progress Notification
Students who do not meet FA-SAP due to grade point average, completion of hours, or has reached the maximum time frame of their program will be issued a FA-SAP memo by the financial aid office as soon as possible; however, notice of financial aid warning may be retroactively incurred based on an evaluation of the student’s previous academic record.
Note: Any student who wishes to appeal the loss of financial aid for failure to meet Satisfactory Academic Progress must do so online at https://texarkanacollege.edu/sapappeal.
Appeal Process
Students who become ineligible for federal/state/VA financial aid under the FA-Satisfactory Academic Progress standards may submit a request for reinstatement (appeal) to the financial aid office with the required supporting documentation attached. Appeal forms with insufficient documentation will not be processed.
The FA-SAP Committee will review the “Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal” submitted by the student, and a decision of approved by the committee or denial by the committee will be noted.
SAP Probation
Students who have successfully appealed the loss of their financial aid are placed on probation. Students on probation are eligible to receive financial aid for one (1) semester, after which they MUST be meeting all the FA-Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards or the requirements of an academic degree plan that was pre-approved by the Financial Aid Office.
SAP Auto-Probation
If a student made good academic progress defined by a 100% completion rate and a 3.0 GPA during the previous semester, they do not have to formally appeal and will be granted an automatic probationary status.
Return of Title IV Funds Policy
The Texarkana College Financial Aid office will perform a Return of Title IV (R2T4) funds calculation for any student who is withdrawn and has received Title IV aid. A student is considered to be “withdrawn” if they receive a grade of W, F, or a combination of both, for all enrolled courses in a specific term. Students who receive a grade of F in all courses with a last date of attendance prior to the last scheduled date of the term are considered withdrawn. If the last date of attendance for a failed course is the same as the last date of the course, the student has earned the F, meaning they are not considered to be withdrawn, but failed to meet the course objectives of the course. All R2T4 calculations will be documented and stored the Financial Aid shared network drive.
Texarkana College follows the guidelines of the Federal Refund policy for a student who has received Federal financial aid funds (other than Federal Work-Study) and who has withdrawn on or after the first day of class. A portion of the student’s award may need to be returned to the Title IV programs and/or the student may need to repay a portion of the award funds received. Return of unearned aid must be distributed according to a specific order of priority mandated in the law and regulations.
If a student receiving Federal Title IV Aid withdraws after completing 60% of the semester, the student is considered to have earned 100% of the Title IV Aid and therefore no funds are returned. A calculation will still be performed to determine if the student is eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement.
The repayment to the various programs will be in the following priority:
- Unsubsidized Loans
- Subsidized Loans
- Pell Grant
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants
- Other Title IV programs, institutional funds, outside agency funds, and student funds
R2T4 Calculations are to be performed by the Financial Aid office once notification has been given that the student has totally withdrawn. Texarkana College will return any funds required by the R2T4 calculation to the Department of Education via the Common Origination and Disbursement System within 45 days of the date that the college determined that the student withdrew.
The withdrawal date is defined as the “Date of school’s determination that the student withdrew”.
Copies of the refund calculation are available upon request in the Financial Aid Office.
Texarkana College is an institution required to take attendance, and therefore adhere to the guidelines specific to attendance taking schools in the federal regulations.
Texarkana College does not accept late responses in regard to post-withdrawal disbursements.
Texarkana College notifies all R2T4 students if a return has been made by email. The email includes their last date of attendance, withdrawal date, and the funds and amount(s) of the return.
Return to Title IV calculations include the following documentation at Texarkana College:
- Return to title IV calculation worksheet
- Student’s withdrawal verification report demonstrating the students last date of attendance and withdrawal dates for each course. As well, as start and end dates for each course in which the student was enrolled.
- Completed days, a pdf of a timeanddate.com calculation of total days completed by the student.
- Percentage completed, a excel spreadsheet which calculates the percentage the student completed out of the total number of days. This document will account for any scheduled breaks within the semester.
- Financial aid master screen which shows the number of financial aid eligible hours the student was enrolled in.
- Financial aid awarded screen which shows the amount of financial aid packaged and disbursed to the student.
- Account record, an excel spreadsheet of the students account listing all tuition and fee charges, and any other transactions on the students account, used to sum the amount of tuition, fees, bookstore charges, and other charges, to be used in the R2T4 calculation.
- Statement of account, a print-out showing the same information as the account record that is summed by another financial aid employee to ensure the totals match the account record.
- Common Origination and Disbursement system (COD) screens showing the amount of funds returned for each fund type, and the date it was returned to demonstrate the funds were returned within 45 days of the student’s withdrawal date (date of determination that the student withdrew).
- Any other documentation deemed necessary by the financial aid administrator performing the calculation to include in the student’s electronic file.